1812
GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES
THE BEAM
by Jacob Ludwig Grimm and Wilhelm Carl Grimm
Electronically Enhanced Text (c) Copyright 1996, World Library(R)
THE BEAM
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THERE WAS once a magician who was standing in the midst of a great
crowd of people performing his wonders. He had a cock brought in,
which lifted a heavy beam and carried it as if it were as light as a
feather. But a girl was present who had just found a bit of
four-leaved clover, and had thus become so wise that no deception
could stand out against her, and she saw that the beam was nothing but
a straw. So she cried, "You people, do you not see that it is a
straw that the cock is carrying, and no beam?" Immediately the
enchantment vanished, and the people saw what it was, and drove the
magician away in shame and disgrace. He, however, full of inward
anger, said, "I will soon revenge myself."
After some time the girl's wedding-day came, and she was decked out,
and went in a great procession over the fields to the place where
the church was. All at once she came to a stream which was very much
swollen, and there was no bridge and no plank to cross it. Then the
bride nimbly took her clothes up, and wanted to wade through it. And
just as she was thus standing in the water a man- and it was the
enchanter- cried mockingly close beside her, "Aha! Where are thine
eyes that thou takest that for water?" Then her eyes were opened,
and she saw that she was standing with her clothes lifted up in the
middle of a field that was blue with flowers of blue flax. Then all
the people saw it likewise, and chased her away with ridicule and
laughter.
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THE END
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